TRANSCRIPT
"I'm standing here in front of my home or what was my home? It burned down to the ground a few days ago in the Palisades fires."
In Los Angeles, where six wildfires have been burning for almost a week, Marjan Rabaji is just one of the more than 150,000 people who had to evacuate their homes.
Returning to her property in the Pacific Palisades, Marjan says there isn't much left.
"We saw the smoke come from the back and then the plume got bigger and bigger and the wind was blowing in this direction. And the fire quickly came our direction and we were asked to evacuate. So we grabbed whatever we could, threw it in the car and left. And then now returning. This is what's left. Everything is decimated. The town is decimated."
Her property is among thousands of homes and businesses lost in the fires so far.
With the death toll now at 24 people, many remain missing with officials warning they expect the death toll to continue growing.
Four of the six major blazes are now under control, but with the area bracing for the return of strong winds, fire authorities say the fight isn't over.
"With the next wave of wind events, I want to be very, very clear here it's very important that the community understands that these wind events are coming into Los Angeles. I want to reassure you that Mayor Bass, Chief McDonald and I are united and focused on exactly what we need to do to prepare the city with this next strong winds that are coming."
LA City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley says the strongest winds are expected Tuesday.
With the winds quickly approaching, she says the city is ready.
"Right now, at least from the LAFD side, we're focused on two things: Containing the fires and saving lives and protecting property. With the impending winds, we have got to pay really, really close attention to this. This wind event is approaching us and it's approaching us very, very quickly. I want to reassure you that your LAFD, all of our regional partners, every single agency that has come from up and down this state and outside of the state, we are ready."
So far, firefighters have contained the Kenneth, Archer, Hurst and Lidia fires.
While progress is being made to contain the two largest blazes, the Eaton and Palisades fires, both are still minimally contained.
With help on the way from across the United States as well as internationally, officials are hoping the extra resources will be enough to overpower the flames.
Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, says the extra help means crews are better prepared to anticipate where the flames may spread.
“Yeah, we have 14,000 people working the line right now. We doubled the National Guard – we have 1,680 out there helping on the logistics side. I was just with folks from Mexico, 73 folks will be relieving some of our hand crews; we've got nine states that are now providing, under this eMac system, support. So, we've got the resources, but we have more important is this, we have the winds that have changed and that allows us to be more resourceful with existing resources, particularly the aerial resources.”
With such widespread damage to property, Governor Newsom has signed executive orders to fast-track the recovery process.
The orders, which also suspend some environmental regulations, are designed to ensure communities in Los Angeles are able to rebuild as soon as possible.
“We've got to be thinking three weeks, three months, three years ahead. At the same time, we're focusing on the immediacy, which is life, safety and property. And so that's exactly what we're doing with disaster assistance: making sure people are getting their applications, addressing the issue of fraud. And that's an issue we've got to address, price gouging. So, executive orders on price gouging, recovery. We want to get inspections units like this. We want to get our inspection teams out here. They're already starting to get out here. We've come up with some timelines, so we can get within the next few weeks all that done so people can get their insurance claims. We can then start the big contracts to remove the debris, to address all the hazmat issues. Same time I got to button up the canyons here as it relates potential flooding of a lot of atmospheric rivers. Remember, we're in the middle of a winter, this is January.”
Mr Newsom has come under scrutiny over the fires, with incoming President Donald Trump taking the opportunity to blame the governor for poor governance.
"The biggest home, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don't even know, you know, that you're talking about a tax base. If those people leave, you have to lose half your tax base off California. This is a true tragedy and it's a mistake of the governor and you could say the administration. They don't have any water. They didn't have water in the fire hydrants. They don't have water."
But politics aside, some community members in Los Angeles are rallying together to support the volunteers on the front line.
Pasadena resident David Andrews says he has never seen anything like this before.
"Came out here today to check on friends, came out here today with a truckload of donuts to give to the first responders. Previously was a cert member for Pasadena Fire. I'm a retired Army Ranger, so I just figured, you know what? I can't sit at home. I've got to get out and I've got to help. Plus, the city is. It's my city. Almost 60 years of living here, I can't think of a better thing to do than to like welcome the volunteers, many of which probably don't know anybody that lives in Pasadena. But they're coming here cause they feel called, right? So they're here to help out."
For residents like Marjan Rajabi, there is still hope in what hasn't been destroyed.
"There is not much that I found here. All I have is like this bag, a lemon, some metallic sprinkler heads just to make my 89 year old mother feel better that I salvaged them. But I did it because it would give her hope and it would give her hope to rebuild. And it's giving me hope to rebuild. And you see, this is a lemon that I salvaged from my lemon tree. I'm going to make lemonade out of this. I'm going to rebuild. We're going to be stronger as a community. We're going to be better. This is going to help us to be more united as a community instead of being so individualistic. We need to work together, come together to rebuild. We need to stand strong because the fight is not over."
